Car will not start at times.

[davinci]

Several times my 1931 Model A Ford would not start and the starter would heat up. I was told by another Model A owner to  rocked the car in third gear and it would unlock.. And it worked. Was it the starter or engine that locked? And how can it be avoided?

[Matt Harwood]

Sounds like your bendix is a little tired. Easy to replace yourself, it's in the nose of the starter. What is happening is that the spring isn't quite strong enough to retract the starter gear when it's touching the flywheel under load. Rocking it moves the flywheel back and forth, taking the pressure of the starter gear so that the bendix can retract it again. We had this problem with a Model A last year and the new bendix was about $30 and it took my mechanic (who had never seen one before) about an hour to remove the starter, replace it, and reinstall the starter. No more problems.

 

Hope this helps!